This Play-Doh Toy Is... Interesting

This past Christmas, some doting mothers were surprised to find that the play set that they bought their children included what appeared to be a kid-friendly dildo. Well, kind of…a piece of Play-Doh’s “Cake Mountain” baking set looks rather phallic, and many overly-concerned parents are outraged by Play-Doh’s penis shaped toy.

The toy was meant to be an icing maker that would help decorate all of the fake cakes and cookies that young children would sneakily try and get their parents to eat. However, as Gawker observed, the tool “looks 100 percent like a veiny dick.” Not that the kids playing with it would notice; they are like four years old and really don’t understand the concept of genitals.

Now, angry mothers and amused onlookers have taken to Twitter and Facebook to vent their frustration with the toy company or simply make fun of the situation. Some parents are even claiming that the penis toy "completely ruined our Christmas." Rather than respond to ruffled customers however, the Play-Doh social media manager has simply been deleting all negative comments regarding the icing tool in the play set. I guess that’s one way to deal with it.

This PR disaster could have been easily avoided. Back in November, before Christmas gifting began, Play-Doh had been receiving complaints about the phallic toy part. They even released a statement via Tulsa's Channel 8 saying, “We have heard some consumer feedback about the extruder tool in the Play-Doh Cake Mountain play set and are in the process of updating all future Play-Doh products with a different tool.” But it looks as though they didn’t replace the tool in all of the toy kits, and certainly not fast enough.

So I guess that many young children will now be scarred for life due to Play-Doh’s lack of oversight. Just kidding! The kids really don’t care and the parents need to get over it…it’s just a phallic-shaped toy, not the end of the world. Everyone can calm down now.

Image: HipHopWired / Twitter